BRIDGETOWN, Barbados-Just when a year-long wait to open Trinidad and Tobago’s telecommunications market seemed to have received the all-clear, another court action in June blocked plans by government to introduce competition with as many as three new cellular providers.
The government of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday has promised competition by year-end. Effectively this means prior to general elections in November.
But apart from the process being bedeviled by court actions associated with license awards, the government has come under fire from the opposition, People’s National Movement (PNM), which called for an investigation into charges of a conflict of interest.
Lindsay Gillette, the de facto minister responsible for telecommunications and negotiations with Cable & Wireless on liberalization, is involved in a family business, Open Telecom, which is a prospective license recipient. Open Telecom is one of three local companies that have been short listed for licenses in controversial circumstances.
Sinclair King, a respected local authority in the telecommunications industry, has charged there has been a lack of transparency in the licensing process, key legislation and regulatory bodies are not in place, and government is ill-advised to rush ahead without such key mechanisms in place.
In addition, he said there are too many secrets involved. It is unclear which spectrum bands are up for awards, and he questioned the absence of a public auction system.
Star Telecommunications, one of 15 companies that had initially indicated an interest in offering cellular service, lost a court appeal to be considered.
The company had argued that its representative was in the building to present its documents prior to a 4: 30 p.m. deadline a year ago.
But the latest twist came from the powerful media group, CCN, which filed a conservatory order restraining government from assessing the cellular applicants and awarding the licenses. Panday has deemed CCN an “enemy” of his administration. CCN was named to an original short list for a cellular license by a government-appointed committee headed by King.
But a new assessment involving Director of Telecommunications Winston Ragbir rescinded this, and Open Telecom, whose bid was rejected by the King-led commission, was subsequently deemed to be a candidate. CCN was dropped from the short list.
The media group, which owns newspaper and radio companies and has interests in cable television, is consequently claiming that its replacement by Open Telecom reflects bias on the part of Panday’s government and is claiming in the court action that its constitutional rights have been violated.
The court ruled in June that government has to answer the court matter brought by CCN and cannot proceed with the award of licenses.
Gillette has denied any conflict of interest, and Panday also said Gillette was excluded from Cabinet discussions on the license issue.
The government holds a 51-percent share in Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), with Cable & Wireless owning the other 49 percent.
Cellular service came to Trinidad and Tobago in December 1991 through a TSTT subsidiary, TSTT Cellnett. At the end of 1999, there were more than 36,000 mobile cellular subscribers.
Cable & Wireless has called for a phased approach to liberalization of up to three years. It argues that a hasty introduction of competition minus the relevant legislation, policies and regulatory mechanisms in place could be disastrous for consumers and undermine investment in the sector.
